How would you solve North Leaside traffic?

By now, most North Leaside residents should have received a traffic survey in their mailboxes.

The purpose of the survey is to start the engagement process as well as to identify residents’ greatest concerns and their enthusiasm for changing the status quo.

After studying past efforts in North Leaside and in other areas of the city, we concluded that the difference between success and failure was often directly related to the success or failure of the prior consultation process with the various affected groups who held differing opinions of the problem and the potential solutions.

So this survey is the culmination of 10 months of work by my North Leaside traffic committee and is what I hope will be the beginning of meaningful measures to reduce the high volume of traffic in our neighbourhood.

While the increasing amount of traffic in North Leaside has been an issue for more than 10 years, we feel that the inevitable development and intensification along Eglinton Ave. (due to the LRT) adds greater urgency in addressing it.

Bluntly stated, we anticipate that new condominium owners on the periphery of the neighbourhood will not share the same concerns as residents in the interior. In fact, new residents on Eglinton Ave. will most likely use the side streets as a “cut through” themselves.

One of the greatest challenges with any traffic calming initiative is that everyone feels the impact of excessive traffic differently.

Each individual’s willingness and tolerance for measures that can affect their personal convenience or travel will vary.

For instance, a resident on a busier street such as Broadway Ave. would probably be more inclined to support stronger traffic calming measures than someone on a less busy street.

While there are many community consultations and feasibility studies to come, the committee and I have committed to two main principles:

We will not consider any solution which simply pushes traffic from one North Leaside street to another.

Any changes in North Leaside must be decided by a majority vote.

If you haven’t received the survey yet and live in North Leaside please either call my office (416 392 0215) or fill out the survey online at http://tinyurl.com/northleasidesurvey before Nov. 30.

I am excited by the enthusiasm of my committee members and thank them for all their time and effort. We all look forward to working with the community to find meaningful solutions.